History of 19 May
1906 – The Federated Boys’ Clubs, the forerunner of the Boys’ Clubs of America, was organized.
1911 – The first American criminal conviction that was based on fingerprint evidence occurred in New York City.
1912 – The Associated Advertising Clubs of America held its first convention in Dallas, TX.
1921 – The U.S. Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, which established national quotas for immigrants.
1926 – Thomas Edison spoke on the radio for the first time.
1926 – Benito Mussolini announced that democracy was deceased. Rome became a fascist state.
1926 – In Damascus, Syria, French shells killed 600 people.
1928 – The first frog-jumping jubilee held in Calaveras County, CA.
1935 – T.E. Lawrence “Lawrence of Arabia” died from injuries in a motorcycle crash in England.
1935 – The National Football League (NFL) adopted an annual college draft to begin in 1936.
1943 – Winston Churchill told the U.S. Congress that his country was pledging their full support in the war against Japan.
1958 – Canada and the U.S. formally established the North American Air Defense Command.
1962 – Marilyn Monroe performed a sultry rendition of “Happy Birthday” for U.S. President John F. Kennedy. The event was a fund-raiser at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
1964 – The U.S. State Department reported that diplomats had found about 40 microphones planted in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
1967 – The Soviet Union ratified a treaty with the United States and Britain that banned nuclear weapons from outer space.
1974 – Erno Rubik invented the puzzle what would later become known as the Rubik’s Cube.
1967 – U.S. planes bombed Hanoi for the first time.
1981 – The Empire State Building was designated a New York City Landmark.
1988 – In Jacksonville, FL, Carlos Lehder Rivas was convicted of smuggling more than three tons of cocaine into the United States. Rivas was the co-founder of Colombia’s Medellin drug cartel.
1989 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average passed 2,500 for the first time. The close for the day was 2,501.1.
1992 – U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle criticized the CBS sitcom “Murphy Brown” for having its title character decide to bear a child out of wedlock.
1992 – In Massapequa, NY, Mary Jo Buttafuoco was shot and seriously wounded by Amy Fisher. Fisher was her husband Joey’s teenage lover.
1992 – The 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect. The amendment prohibits Congress from giving itself midterm pay raises.
1993 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed about 3,500 (3,500.03) for the first time.
1998 – In Russia, strikes broke out over unpaid wages.
1998 – Bandits stole three of Rome’s most important paintings from the National Gallery of Modern Art.
1999 – “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace” was released in the U.S. It set a new record for opening day sales at 28.5 million.
1999 – Rosie O’Donnell and Tom Selleck got into an uncomfortable verbal issue concerning gun control on O’Donnell’s talk show.
2000 – The bones of the most complete and best-preserved Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton went on display in Chicago.
2000 – Disney released the movie “Dinosaur.”
2003 – It was announced that Worldcom Inc. would pay investors $500 million to settle civil fraud charges over its $11 billion accounting scandal.
2003 – Hundreds of Albert Einstein’s scientific papers, personal letters, and humanist essays made available on the Internet. Einstein had given the papers to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in his will.
2005 – “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” brought in 50.0 million in its opening day.
2013 – The Yahoo board approved the $1.1 billion purchase of the blogging site Tumblr.
2015 – The Refugio oil spill deposited 142,800 U.S. gallons (3,400 barrels) of crude oil onto an area in California considered one of the most biologically diverse coastlines of the west coast.
2016 – EgyptAir Flight 804 crashes into the Mediterranean Sea while traveling from Paris to Cairo, killing all on board.
2018 – The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is held at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, with an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Yo Gotti, American rapper
- 1981 – Michael Leighton, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1981 – Sina Schielke, German sprinter
- 1981 – Klaas-Erik Zwering, Dutch swimmer
- 1982 – Kevin Amankwaah, English footballer
- 1982 – Pål Steffen Andresen, Norwegian footballer
- 1982 – Klaas Vantornout, Belgian cyclist
- 1983 – Michael Che, American comedian
- 1983 – Jessica Fox, English actress
- 1984 – Marcedes Lewis, American football player
- 1985 – Aleister Black, Dutch professional wrestler
- 1986 – Mario Chalmers, American basketball player
- 1987 – Michael Angelakos, American singer-songwriter, and producer
- 1987 – David Edgar, Canadian soccer player
- 1987 – Mariano Torres, the Argentinian footballer
- 1991 – Jordan Pruitt, American singer-songwriter
- 1992 – Marshmello, British electronic music producer and DJ
- 1992 – Michele Camporese, Italian footballer
- 1992 – Ola John, Dutch footballer
- 1992 – Felise Kaufusi, New Zealand-Tongan rugby league player
- 1992 – Evgeny Kuznetsov, Russian ice hockey player
- 1992 – Sam Smith, English singer-songwriter
- 1994 – Carlos Guzmán, Mexican footballer
- 1995 – Taane Milne, New Zealand rugby league player